


for it reeks of melancholy

by TooManyBooksToRead



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… - 山口悟 | My Next Life as a Villainess - Yamaguchi Satoru (Light Novels)
Genre: Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Mentions of both Sophia and Hermione, the book is totally Sophia and the Emerald Princess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24599644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooManyBooksToRead/pseuds/TooManyBooksToRead
Summary: Harry and Ron meet someone at the infirmary.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Sophia Ascart, Nicol Ascart & Sophia Ascart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	for it reeks of melancholy

Harry and Ron came to the infirmary later than usual, the staircase in the east hall had shifted while they were on it forcing them to take a longer route. They were going to cut it close to curfew, closer than he was comfortable with, but they couldn’t go the day without seeing Hermione.

Harry tightened his grip on the pile of assignments as the infirmary door came into view, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was his fault Hermione ended up like this.

“You okay there mate?” Ron asked when he started lagging behind.

Harry nodded taking a deep breath and speeding up to walk side by side with him. Ron nudged his shoulder, “I know it’s hard but we gotta. Madam Pomfrey won’t let us stay if it’s too late.”

Harry hardened his resolve and opened the door. The first thing he noticed was that it wasn’t empty, usually, all the visitors would have cleared up by now, but a boy was sitting in between two of the cots with a book in hand. The second was that he was next to Hermione, a protective instinct flared up in him, no one but them had come to see Hermione since she’d been petrified. Well, that was a lie, sometimes when they’d come to drop off her assignments a girl with silver hair and red eyes had been there, reading aloud for her.

Guilt gnawed at him as he caught sight of the person in the other cot, he hadn’t even bothered to find out her name before he’d accused her of being the one to do this. Now she was there too, lying immobile in her cot, looking still and much too close to death’s door. Now people were whispering about her too, calling her blood-traitor and saying she deserved to be petrified and all manner of horrible things in between. Harry wondered why she’d been reading to Hermione every evening, he wondered if he’d ever get to ask her.

Ron nudged him towards the cot, Hermione still stuck like she’d been every night before. As they got closer he heard a soft voice, the guy in between the girls was talking, his soft voice carrying clearly across the silent room.

Harry thought he looked very sad at that moment, reading aloud to the empty room. Quiet like he was unused to talking.

“Hey ‘Mione,” Ron said dragging an extra chair so they could stay until Pomfrey asked them to leave, “We got today’s assignments for you, tried taking notes in class too but Binns can put an elephant to sleep as is!”

The guy’s voice abruptly stopped.

Harry smiled, comforted by Ron’s attitude, “We asked Professor Sprout and she said the mandrakes are coming along nicely.”

“Yeah so don’t worry! We’ve got this and you’ll be back for those exams you were talking our ears off about.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Harry fidgeted in his seat, stealing looks at the guy when he thought he could get away with it.

“You’re her friends.” He said suddenly.

Harry nodded, unsure of why he was talking to them.

He turned to look at Hermione, then at the girl, there was a deep fondness in his eyes.

Harry was many things, one of them was curious, another was impulsive. So before he could think too much about it he asked, “Why are you here?”

Ron looked at him like he’d lost a few screws in the walk here, the guy looked… it was hard to tell really, but if he had to guess he’d say he looked surprised.

He turned to face them, letting them properly look at the colour of his tie, Ravenclaw silver, just like the girl’s. He looked at them intensely, Harry felt like he could tell what he’d been thinking before, his guilt and his anger visible.

Ron looked at him and raised an eyebrow, the silence stretching longer and longer.

“Sophia told me she intended to lend this book to Hermione,” he finally said as if that explained everything.

Harry felt it’d be rude to ask for more, even if he had been the one to start the conversation. Ron, however, held no such reservations.

“And what’s that have to do with anything.”

The guy closed his book and gently laid it to rest on the table next to Sophia’s cot – Harry promised himself he’d remember her name, he owed her at least that much – and thought about it for a moment, weighing his words like they were a difficult decision, maybe they were.

“She needed to tell her something and was going to lend her the book too, when they found her.”

He didn’t need to elaborate on what _that_ meant, Harry still remembered the sight of Hermione when they’d found her, and the girl kneeling silently at her feet.

He shuffled in his seat, wondering who this guy was to Sophia, who Hermione was to her that she’d come every day without fail to read to her.

The sound of something scraping across the floor drew him from his thoughts, the guy had stood up and was making his way to the door.

“Are you leaving already?”

He looked at them and gave something that might be called a shadow of a smile, “I figured she’d want some time alone with you.”

With that, he closed the door and left, the sound echoing over the room.

Harry stared at the closed door and couldn’t help thinking that, even that shadow of a smile had looked impossibly sad.


End file.
